The House of Burgesses was one of the first representative self-government bodies in the early colonial
United States. The
London Company authorized its establishment in 1619 as a miniature
parliament. Its base of operation was
Jamestown, Virginia. It continued as a
democratic (for
white,
male landowners) representative body with full governmental control until 1624, when Virgina's
charter was revoked by an angry
King James. He saw the feeble wilderness body as a threat to his power, a "
seminary of
sedition", and put the colony back under royal control with the bankruptcy of the
Virgina Company.
Despite the royal hostility, the House of Burgesses continued to exist up through the Revolutionary War, and it sent delegates to the Constitutional Convention. Patrick Henry delivered his famous speech in the House of Burgesses.